Rewari gangrape: BJP MLA Premlata blames unemployment for rapes

Chandigarh, Sep 15: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Haryana stirred up a controversy on Saturday when she said youth who do not have employment get frustrated and commit crime.

"Youth who do not have employment get frustrated and commit such (rapes) crimes," she said while addressing the media.

Her statement comes in the wake of a 19-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped in the state. The father of the young woman said she could have been raped by eight to 10 men.

The father of the young woman, a school topper who was felicitated by the government, said she could have been raped by eight to 10 men.

The mother hit out at the police for allegedly failing to take action in the case and said her daughter was traumatised even as the accused "were roaming freely" after the incident.

"She has named three accused, but when the horrific incident took place, she sensed that 8-10 persons could have been there," the victim's father told reporters in Rewari Friday, noting she was drugged by the accused.

The incident evoked sharp reaction from the opposition, with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleging a complete breakdown of the law and order situation.

He demanded resignation of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on moral grounds for the state's alleged failure to protect its daughters.

"The chief minister should resign on moral grounds. There is complete breakdown of law and order machinery in Haryana. The latest shocking incident is not an isolated one... Criminals were on the run from Haryana when the Congress was in power, but crime graph has gone up ever since the BJP came to power," Hooda alleged.

Khattar told reporters in Rohtak the law will take its course and assured that culprits will be punished.

According to the FIR, the young woman had gone to attend a coaching class when she was abducted Wednesday while she was waiting at a bus-stop in Kanina.

She was allegedly kidnapped by the accused who arrived in a car and was taken to a secluded place where she was gangraped after being offered a drink laced with sedatives, the survivor alleged in her complaint.

The accused left her near a bus stop in Kanina later that day.

Meanwhile, the victim was admitted to a hospital in Rewari after she complained of pain in the abdomen.